Korean horror isn't what it used to be. But it was never any one thing to begin with.
For many years it was unfairly seen as the poor cousin of J-horror in neighbouring Japan, but K-horror, as it has come to be known, has roots stretching back 60 years. Influenced by local folklore and urban legends and shaped by a society that teeters along sharp divides between tradition and modernity, and shamanism and christianity, it has continually evolved during that time.
Filmmakers like Lee Man-hee and Lee Yong-min were jolting audiences all the way back in the early 1960s and local folklore gave us the templates for the Korean horror films of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, whether through mythical creatures like the Gumiho (aka 'Nine-Tailed Fox') or folk tales like 'A Tale of Two Sisters'.
With a few hours left in 2019, it’s time to look back at the decade that was for Korean cinema. The industry really came into its own in the late 1990s and most of the names the world is familiar with now first gained notice in the 2000s, but it soared to new heights in the 2010s, becoming one of the largest film industries on the planet, responsible for some of the most critically acclaimed films of the decade.
By Pierce Conran Following his Hollywood foray Stoker, Park Chan-wook returns to (mostly) home soil for his sumptuous and sensual adaptation of Sarah Waters' Fingersmith. Transposing the novel's setting from Victorian England to 1930s Korea and Japan, when the former was a colony of the latter, The Handmaiden is a deeply engrossing, highly sexual and at times darkly humorous tale of female sexuality brought to life in spectacular fashion.
While 2016 has a been a difficult year in many regards, one area where it has excelled has been Korean cinema. With big auteurs returning with some of their best work, younger filmmakers making their presence felt and another new batch of promising indies, the industry has put out its best crop of films in years.
A great year for Korean genre cinema keeps getting better with the release of Lee Kyoung-mi's long time coming sophomore feature, the riveting The Truth Beneath, a sumptuous and anarchic political thriller, kidnap drama, suspenseful whodunnit and kaleidoscopic descent into delirium. Falling between the stylistic panache of Park Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance (2005), on which she was a scripter and assistant director, and the manic paranoia of Tetsuya Nakashima's Confessions (2010), Lee's latest features a career-best performance by Son Ye-jin in a narrative that occasionally gets mired in tonal vagaries.
By Pierce Conran More so than usual, it took a long time to compile this year's 'most anticipated Korean films' list for the simple reason that there's so much on the horizon. Some of Korea's master directors return, following their US debuts, and there are many tantalizing combinations of talent and concept waiting in the wings.
In the midst of global Star Wars mania, MKC contributor Kyu Hyun Kim imagines what a Star Wars Episode VIII might look like if the reins and total creative freedom were given to some of the biggest names in Korean cinema.
Last year was a rough one for Korea's mainstream industry, at least creatively speaking. There were some big hits but not a lot of memorable fare, though the independent sector thrived. Thankfully, 2015 has a much more exciting lineup right off the bat. Major filmmakers like Park Chan-wook, Na Hong-jin, Ryoo Seung-wan, Im Sang-soo and Choi Dong-hoon are set to return and though period films and thrillers once again dominate, many upcoming projects feature promising combinations of talent and content.
I’ve been a keen fan of Korean films for over a decade and have now spent about a year and a half living within the country’s borders, yet, though I’ve been exposed to it many times, shamanism stubbornly remains a difficult part of the nation’s heritage to get to grips with. Mystical and echoing an ancient way of life, it is not merely something that fallen in stature due to the ravages of time, it is a facet of Korean culture that requires a different way of thinking.
Part of MKC's Revenge Week (July 8-14, 2013). By Rowena Santos Aquino
Continuing the collapse of the boundaries between filmmaking and real life, when the director comes to, he finds his hands tied behind his back and cinched at the waist with a red band to curtail his movement and his wife gagged and her seated body woven into the piano as if condemned to play the instrument for all eternity. But as a shot reveals, what looks to be their home, where the unnamed avenger first appears, is actually the film set used at the beginning of the film. Who is the director and who is the actor now?
We all know what revenge is as an act: a self-serving system that goes beyond in the absence of, or rejects, institutional justice. In short, when one has been wronged physically and emotionally or has witnessed another experience, and acts privately and accordingly, based on one’s ethical line, to punish who has committed that wrong. As film scholar Steve Choe writes, ‘Vengeance requires the existence of a past transgression or trauma, which demands that it be met with equal compensation in the present’ (30). Even more summary still, revenge is about personally ‘getting even’ and (idealistically) bringing about a moral parity but often through immoral ways.
Part of MKC's Revenge Week (July 8-14, 2013). Just a few days left in Revenge Week now and the very kind people from Palisades Tartan have reached out to us to give a few lucky readers the chance to win Park Chan-wook's entire Vengeance Trilogy on DVD or Blu-Ray!
Hollywood has a history of cherry-picking the world’s greatest filmmaking talents. Though many greats such as Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau and Roman Polanksi have made some of their finest works on American soil, the same can’t always be said of Asian directors. Besides Ang Lee, most Asian cineastes have had trouble adapting their style to the US. This year all eyes are on a few Korean directors making their Hollywood debuts to see if they can buck the trend.
It’s been a longer wait then usual for Park Chan-wook’s new film and the prospect of him working in the States with internationally recognizable faces has meant that expectations for his latest have been sky high. Unlike Kim Jee-woon, who was forced to work on a very controlled project with his Hollywood debut The Last Stand, Park was given much greater freedom for his film.
Lots of new projects or details of upcoming films announced this week, including the latest on Park Chan-wook, Hong Sang-soo and Kim Jee-woon's cinematic endeavors. The first teaser for Ryoo Seung-wan hotly anticipated spy thriller The Berlin File was also released today.
KOREAN CINEMA NEWS
Kim Jee-woon Plans Live Action Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade
Get ready for something spectacular. Korea's Kim Jee-woon - soon to make his English language debut with Arnold Schwarzenegger starring The Last Stand - has big plans for his next Korean film and it's something that should leave anime fans very, very happy. (Twitch, December 11, 2012)
Director Hong Sangsoo’s Next Film Gets 19 Rating
Director Hong Sangsoo’s next film, Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, was given the 19 or above rating on December 6. The film finished shooting this past spring and is in the post production stage, awaiting a release date. The film stars Lee Sun-kyun who appeared in Hong Lost in the Mountains and Oki’s Movie. This will be the actor’s third collaboration with Hong. (KoBiz, December 11, 2012)
Lots of news this week as Park Chan-wook takes on yet another new film, BIFF announces its schedule, Pieta gets its chance for Oscar glory and The Thieves begins its world conquest.
KOREAN CINEMA NEWS
Park Chan-wook Signs Onto Another New Project with Gangster Pic Corsica '72
Only a few weeks after signing on to the western The Brigands of Rattleborge, Park Chan-wook has taken on an additional Hollywood gig. This new project is one that has been knocking around for a while after appearing on Hollywood's Black List (a yearly industry poll of tinseltown's best unproduced screenplays) in 2009. Previously Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall, 2006) and Luca Guadanigno (I Am Love, 2009) had been attached to the script by the scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade who have been involved in all the recent Bond films.
Corsica '72, as the title would suggest, takes place on the small mediterranean island and follows two best friends who grow up to find themselves on opposite sides of the law and in love with the same woman.
It seems that this project will go ahead of Rattleborge as that one will require more time for casting due to its violent nature. It's great to see Park so busy these days but personally I was hoping he would head back home to helm another feature in Korea rather than do three on the trot stateside. But who am I to complain when I now have three films to look forward to from one of the world's best filmmakers? (Modern Korean Cinema, September 18/Twitch, September 18, 2012)
The bis news this week is a new Park Chan-wook project, Pieta premiering at Venice and numerous Busan Film Fest announcements
BIFF 2012
The 17th Busan International Film Festival is exactly one month away and the news is starting to come in thick and fast. MKC will be on site for the entire event:
Some great trailers and a fantastic from Park Chan-wook on Stoker this week but much of the last seven days' Korean Cinema news revolves around the Kickstarter project behing Remember O Goddess, an upcoming Korean film that is looking for crowdsourced funding. Lee Yoon-jung has been working hard to get the word out as she seeks to turn her excellent short film of the same title into a feature. Last week there was a post promoting the project here on MKC:
District 9 star Sharlto Copley offered bad guy role in Spike Lee’s Oldboy
Those of you who have seen District 9 can attest that Sharlto Copley should be in a lot more movies. Now Variety reports that the actor has just been offered the villain role in Spike Lee’s American remake of Oldboy, a 2003 Korean thriller from director Chan-Wook Park that holds the distinction of being one of the most disturbing movies I’ve seen in a long time. (Filmonic, April 12, 2012)
Korean Film Downunder 3: Longing for a Ko-production
The time has come for Australia to look to the powerhouse of the Asia Pacific region in regards to the entertainment industry. No longer can our focus simply be locked on to the lustrous billions of potential opportunities that China seems to hold over us. The real leader in the region, the real leader in the industry, is South Korea. (Tully's Recall, April 16, 2012)
This Friday, the 14th Udine Far East Film Festival gets underway presenting one of the best lineups of Asian cinema to be found outside of the continent. MKC will be onsite covering the event though since I only get there on Sunday night I will have missed the first few days, which sadly include some of the films I was most excited about. Long have I known about the FEFF and wanted to go so I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to attend this year and sample the many films on offer. (Modern Korean Cinema, April 17, 2012)
Ryoo Seung-wan's highly anticipated film Berlin, featuring a bevy of stars, began production on the 16th in Korea and will move to Europe next month for the majority of its shoot. Berlin stars Ha Jeong-woo, Han Seok-kyu, Rioo Seung-beom and Jeon Ji-hyeon. It a spy action drama about three men and a woman who chase after each other after getting involved in an unexpected plot based in Berlin. (hancinema.net, April 17, 2012)
Acclaimed director Park Chan-wook, who is renowned for daring films such as Oldboy (2003), Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) and Thirst (2009) recently wrapped production on his English-language film debut, a thriller called Stoker. The film, which stars Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode, is slated for release later this year and there is already talk of a possible Cannes premiere. (Joong Ang Daily, March 29, 2012)
Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site.
To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
This week's Korean Cinema News marks the feature's one-year anniversary! Thank you all so much for visiting the site, I really appreciate your continued support.
Unfortunately this is a rather slow week for Korean cinema news, bar the rumours of big new films premiering at Cannes and a very exciting trailer for Im Sang-soo's latest.
I'm sure there will be much more to chew on next week as the Udine Far East Film Festival (which MKC will be covering on site) lineup is announced and we learn more about these tantalizing Cannes selections.
Thanks again and as always, enjoy!
KOREAN CINEMA NEWS
Son Ye Jin's Next Project is Upcoming Film, Accomplice
After her successful film, Chilling Romance, actress Son Ye Jin has chosen her next project, Accomplice, which will be directed by a rookie director. While Chilling Romance was also shot by a rookie director, Accomplice will be Son Ye Jin's third straight project with a rookie director. People are wondering whether this is mere coincidence or if Son Ye Jin has certain preferences. (soompi, March 28, 2012)
New Hong Sang-soo and Park Chan-wook Films Set For Cannes?
A list has been leaked which purports to be the official selection for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival and features the new oeuvres from both Hong Sang-soo (In Another Country) and Park Chan-wook (Stoker), both Cannes stalwarts. The rest of the picks are equally impressive, all we need now is official confirmation. (cinema-licious, April 2, 2012)
Bollywood Invasion Coming to Seoul
Three Bollywood films are opening in local theaters this month, only about a month after the Indian Film Festival in Seoul, expanding Indian films’ presence in Korea’s movie market. The release of the three films – Stanley’s Tiffin Box, God’s Own Child, and The Robot – comes after a surprisingly successful year for Bollywood pictures in Korea. (The Korea Herald, April 3, 2012)
Hyun Jung Hwa Requested Ha Ji Won to Portray Her for Korea
The table tennis coach and gold medalist, Hyun Jung Hwa (who is being portrayed in the upcoming Korea) revealed that she requested to be portrayed by Ha Ji Won. She joined the actresses Ha Ji Won and Bae Doo Na for a Korea press conference. (soompi, April 3, 2012)
INTERVIEW
Matthew Goode Talks Chan-wook Park’s Stoker
There’s little doubt that Chan-wook Park’s first foray into English-language filmmaking will be of great interest to the many fans the South Korean director has attracted over the years, not least for his brutal and brilliant Vengeance trilogy, and there’s a distinct air of mystery around Stoker. (heyuguys.co.uk, March 6, 2012)
Huh Jong-ho Interview
Last Friday morning, during my coverage of the Fribourg International Film Festival, I had the opportunity to sit down with Huh Jong-ho, the director of Countdown, which was screening in the main competition of the festival. His film was awarded the FIPRESCI award during Saturday's closing ceremony. We covered a range of topics in our long discussion, including film schools, first time directors in Korea, the future of the industry, plans for his next project and much more. (Modern Korean Cinema, April 3, 2012)
Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
Lots of big sales at the HK Film Market and some interesting casting news. Also many new trailers and posters this week, including one for the hotly anticipated As One.
Park Joong-hoon is currently writing the scenario for his director-debut movie with a professional writer. He has been officially announcing his debut as a director and the preparation process on his Twitter regularly. He said on his Twitter, "I have officially started filming. I will put my heart into it". Previously, he revealed that he was working with a professional writer on the scenario and truthfully revealed the pain and joy in writing out the story. (hancinema.net, March 14, 20120
Early Works Return to Life at Korean Film Archive
Moviegoers today are accustomed to glossy, high-definition images that indiscriminately reveal slight skin blemishes of actors known for flawless complexions. Bass-heavy, surround-sound audio has also become the norm. (The Korea Times, March 15, 2012)
Jane Birkin Wants to Work with Director Hong Sang-soo
French actress and singer Jane Birkin talked to Yonhap News ahead of her Korean concert at AX-Korea on March 22. During the email interview, the chanteuse wondered if she was too old to give acting a go in Korea. “There’s always a bit of a risk when you start something new, but I think working on a Korean movie would be worth it. The question is though, would Hong Sang-soo want to hire me?” joked Birkin. (Joong Ang Daily, March 16, 2012)
Lost’s Yunjin Kim Gets A Lead In ABC’s Mistresses
Lost alumna Yunjin Kim has landed a lead opposite Rochelle Aytes and Jes Macallan in Mistresses, ABC’s drama recently greenlighted straight to series for a summer 2013 launch. The soap, written by KJ Steinberg and based on the British format, is described as a provocative drama about four women — three of them played by Kim, Aytes and Macallan — with scandalous romantic lives, caught in storms of excitement and self-discovery, secrecy and betrayal. (Deadline Hollywood, March 16, 2012)
Buyers Run Off With Showbox's Thieves The Thieves, a big-budget heist movie, has been a strong seller for integrated South Korean film giant Showbox/Mediaplex Inc. The company has pre-sold the film to Dream Movie Entertainment Overseas Ltd for Singapore and Malaysia, Queen International Pictures Pte Ltd for Indonesia and Catchplay Inc for Taiwan. (Film Business Asia, March 18, 2012)
KOFIC Eyes Global Market at H.K. FILMART
Korean Film Council (KOFIC) announced on Monday that it is currently participating in Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART), to promote local films worldwide and launch more foreign projects in Korea. The Hong Kong-based event, which kicked off Monday and runs through Thursday, is considered one of the biggest film markets in Asia. KOFIC said they will have their own lounge, titled “Korean Film Center,” during the event. (The Korea Herald, March 19, 2012)
Start Date Set and The Host Stars join Bong Joon-ho’s Snow Piercer
A-list director Bong Joon-ho (Mother, 2009) is bringing back a couple of stars from one of his biggest hits, The Host (2006), for his newest project, Snow Piercer, which sounds like quite the large-scale sci-fi/thriller/action venture. In it, Go Ah-sung (God of Study) and Song Kang-ho team up to play a father-daughter duo, as they did six years ago in The Host. The film is set to begin shooting on March 26 and expected to run through to July 1. (dramabeans, March 19, 2012)
5 Points to Do Right by CJ
US-based Asian entertainment group Right Stuf Inc has struck a deal to handle seven titles from South Korea's CJ Entertainment Inc in North American home entertainment markets. Titles include Bleak Night (2010), Finding Mr Destiny (2010), Moss (2010), Penny Pinchers, Punch, The Suicide Forecast and Tazza: The High Rollers (2006). (Film Business Asia, March 19, 2012)
Will Park Chan-wook Go to Cannes With Nicole Kidman?
Will director Park Chan-wook step on the red carpet at Cannes with Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman? Director Park Chan-wook's Hollywood project Stalker is likely to be submitted in the 65th Cannes International Film Festival that is opening on the 16th of May. Recent Hollywood reports and movie expert media have been looking positively at the possibilities of Stalker entering Cannes, along with the coming together of a Korean director and famous Hollywood actress. (hancinema.net, March 20, 2012)
INTERVIEW
Heartthrob Determined to Go Beyond His Image
More than a decade into his career, Joo Jin-mo, 37, is still considered one of the best-looking faces in Korean cinema. He is also a victim of that image, however, incarnating one virile leading man after another. Even in his newest film Gabi that opens today, he plays that tough-guy role again. (The Korea Times, March 13, 2012)
Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site.
To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
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